And today, the Christian world feels, that while lynching is a crime, and lawlessness and anarchy the certain precursors of a nation's fall, it can not by word or deed, extend sympathy or help to a race of outlaws, who might mistake their plea for justice and deem it an excuse for their continued wrongs.
— from The Red Record Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States by Ida B. Wells-Barnett

A real case indeed will start the natives on a wave of discussion, evoke expressions of indignation, show them taking sides—all of which talk will probably contain a wealth of definite views, of moral censures, as well as reveal the social mechanism set in motion by the crime committed.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

They had never, I think, wanted to do so many things for their poor protectress; I mean—though they got their lessons better and better, which was naturally what would please her most—in the way of diverting, entertaining, surprising her; reading her passages, telling her stories, acting her charades, pouncing out at her, in disguises, as animals and historical characters, and above all astonishing her by the “pieces” they had secretly got by heart and could interminably recite.
— from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

There were particular ways of doing everything in that family: particular ways of bleaching the linen, of making the cowslip wine, curing the hams, and keeping the bottled gooseberries; so that no daughter of that house could be indifferent to the privilege of having been born a Dodson, rather than a Gibson or a Watson.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

The facetious Dr. Kitchener used to observe that there was one case in which he believed that it was really unlucky for thirteen persons to sit down to dinner, and that was when there was only dinner enough for twelve.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

There were no explanations, except that Costanza had had one glorious week of doing exactly as she chose, of splendid unbridled licence, and that this was the result.
— from The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim

I miss thee here, Not pleased, thus entertained with solitude, Where obvious duty ere while appeared unsought: Or come I less conspicuous, or what change Absents thee, or what chance detains?—Come forth!
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton

Again, now look at This, which round, above, Contains the whole earth in its one embrace: If from itself it procreates all things— As some men tell—and takes them to itself When once destroyed, entirely must it be Of mortal birth and body; for whate'er From out itself giveth to other things Increase and food, the same perforce must be Minished, and then recruited when it takes Things back into itself.
— from On the Nature of Things by Titus Lucretius Carus

"There is always a best way of doing everything, if it be to boil an egg.
— from Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works by Oliver Wendell Holmes

Even the head man of the company up the creek known as the "Gay Roosters," and who was notoriously the most rough and reckless man in the camp, jumped a first-class poker game, where he was playing at twenty dollars ante and pass the buck, to come in and weigh out dust enough to "call" the Parson and Sandy.
— from First Fam'lies of the Sierras by Joaquin Miller

Apex of [53] rostrum rather blunt, deeper than wide opposite distal ends of maxillæ; all the bones anchylosed together, but some of the sutures indicated by grooves.
— from The Beaked Whales of the Family Ziphiidae An Account of the Beaked Whales of the Family Ziphiidae in the Collection of the United States Museum... by Frederick W. (Frederick William) True

Faintly its exploring ray lighted the contour of that shrouded head, touched the lovely curves of her arched brows and the tender pallor of the skin about those great wells of dark eyes....
— from The Fortieth Door by Mary Hastings Bradley

As the plan, scope, and beauty of the work were originally developed, eminent literary men, and the leading presses of the United States and Great Britain, pronounced it one of the most valuable historical productions ever issued.
— from Vagabond Life in Mexico by Gabriel Ferry

A lady, whom he had seen on former occasions, was one day exceedingly hurt by his manner, and burst into tears.
— from Memoirs of John Abernethy With a View of His Lectures, His Writings, and Character; with Additional Extracts from Original Documents, Now First Published by George Macilwain

For large dumplings a thick pudding-cloth—the best being of Canton flannel, used with the nap-side out—should be dipped in hot water, and wrung out, dredged evenly and thickly with flour, and laid over a large bowl.
— from The Easiest Way in Housekeeping and Cooking Adapted to Domestic Use or Study in Classes by Helen Campbell

; not meaning thereby to attribute any holiness or special worthiness to the said garments, but as St. Paul writeth: ‘ Omnia decenter et secundum ordinem fiant ’ (1 Cor.
— from A History of the Reformation (Vol. 2 of 2) by Thomas M. (Thomas Martin) Lindsay

It was known before that language is the distinguishing characteristic of man; it was known also that the having of general ideas is that which puts a perfect distinction betwixt man and brutes; but that these two were only different expressions of the same fact was not known till the theory of roots had been established as preferable to the theories both of Onomatopoieia and of Interjections.
— from Lectures on the Science of Language by F. Max (Friedrich Max) Müller